


Hungry

by forgetcanon



Series: the kind of human wreckage (that you love) [1]
Category: Star Wars Legends: Knights of the Old Republic (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Blood Drinking, Gen, Mind Control
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-06 22:33:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16841746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forgetcanon/pseuds/forgetcanon
Summary: There isn't anything for a hungry vampire to eat on their stolen ship. Aside from the obvious, of course.





	Hungry

Vampires were secretive, as a rule. Even after fighting alongside one side of a clan war for five years, even after destroying an entire clan- elders, thralls, young, and all- he still didn’t know much. It irritated the engineer in him.

He didn’t know precisely how strong a vampire was, aside from “stronger than normal.” He didn’t know why some vampires could stand the sun and some couldn’t, except that it drove the ones who couldn’t mad. He didn’t know what the process of turning entailed, except that it was lengthy. He didn’t know how their glamour functioned, except that it didn’t work on the blind. He didn’t know how often a vampire had to drink, or how much they needed in order to be sated.

But he did know what a hungry vampire looked like. And he knew what happened to the people around a hungry vampire.

The general was getting hungry.

There wasn’t anything for her to drink on the ship. Aside from the obvious, of course.

“You said this was your ship,” Bao-Dur said, as the general hovered in the tiny galley. She was poking through the fridge for the third time, as though a pack of frozen synthetic blood would somehow appear if she just looked hard enough.

“It certainly doesn’t belong to anyone else,” she said, an edge in her voice. She avoided looking at him, but Bao-Dur knew that her pupils were blowing wide by the way she winced away from even the dim lighting from the main hold. “It was… a recent acquisition.”

Stolen, Bao-Dur thought. That was a new low.

And they were nearly half a day out from Dantooine. And even then, Bao-Dur wasn’t entirely sure how to go about finding someone selling the synthetic stuff. Maybe Atton knew. Going by the way Atton had locked himself up in the bridge, he knew things were going to go wrong with the general, soon. The door to the cargo hold had been sealed and locked, and while Handmaiden was likely agitated, she was safe for the time being. Even the elder had retreated to one of the crews quarters.

Leaving Bao-Dur with the hungry vampire.

He sighed. Well, it wasn’t as though the elder would be able to help. It was probably better that she stay out of the way.

“Where should we do this?” Bao-Dur asked.

The general made an impatient noise as she opened another empty cabinet. She was still glancing longingly at the fridge. (For a creature whose prey regularly just _made_ more food if left alone, the way a fridge didn’t fill itself had to be vexing.)

Abruptly, she said, “The crew quarters’ doors should keep me in if you activate the mag-lock, but then there’s the problem of letting me out. There isn’t a convenient way for you to get synth packs to me without one of you being present. Maybe the droid could-?”

“General,” Bao-Dur interrupted. “That’s a lot of bother to go through.”

“ _Then what do you suggest_ ,” she hissed, shoulders hunching.

“Can you feed without killing me?”

One moment Bao-Dur was standing in the galley door. The next he was pinned up against the hatch, Tiniat’s arm like a bar across his chest. Her lips parted and he could see her fangs, upper and lower, as she breathed in, and behind them, her tongue. He grunted and his heels scrabbled to find his weight-

The general backed off abruptly enough that he stumbled. She turned to face the wall.

“Think. Carefully. Before you suggest that again,” she said, voice hoarse.

“ _Can_ you feed off me without killing me?” Bao-Dur repeated, insistent. “Because if you can’t, it’s time to lock you up.”

“I-” She jerked in his direction. “I think I can. I don’t know. I don’t know. It’s your choice.”

It was true that, in this state, the general _could_ kill him. Bao-Dur had been fed on before, when he had carried an injured vampire to the shade of an alley, and she had twisted around in his grip and…

And he had survived that. Just barely, but he’d survived. And she was still capable of rational thought. And now she had years of experience of operating without a clan to support her and cover up any mistakes.

And, in the end, it was the simplest choice.

“I’m sure,” Bao-Dur said, and the vampire’s head snapped around.

She took his wrist and half-dragged, half-guided him out to a seat in the main hold, her black eyes fixed on his. Maybe it was eye contact, he thought. But last time, there hadn’t been eye contact.

He didn’t remember making the choice to walk, he wasn’t sure why he automatically made himself comfortable as her eyes flicked quickly between his neck and his arm.

Bao-Dur saw her make the choice to drink from his wrist. And then she was doing it. And then he was sitting there as she licked a stray bead of blood from the underside of his arm. She had to go over it again as it smeared, to get it all. Some part of him ached. Maybe his head.

“What…?” he muttered. It had been so quick. Or maybe he’d lost time. It didn’t feel like he’d blacked out. He wanted to rub his headache away, but she was still holding his organic arm. He couldn’t see where she’d bitten him.

“Don’t move,” she said, and Bao-Dur didn’t. “Stupid. _Stupid_. There isn’t any food for you, either.”

She got up. Bao-Dur pulled his arm into his lap. Turned it upwards. It twinged. He could see four marks, like fading insect bites, and they throbbed slightly. His head hurt more than they did. She had chosen a place to bite him that avoided the tendons. It wouldn’t even impact his work.

By the time Bao-Dur wondered where she had gone, she was back, putting a glass of water in his hand.

“Drink this,” she said. “Slowly. Don’t get up.”

She went away again. Bao-Dur drank. The water was tinny. He would have to check the water tanks- if the water had been sitting still too long, the pipes could be rusting. Or something could be growing in the tanks themselves. It happened.

She crossed his vision again, carrying one of their dufflebags. Was it his, hers, Atton’s…? She went into the galley with it.

She came back out with the contents of a carnivore’s ration pack, heated up and dumped on to a plate, with a fork.

“Eat,” she said, and Bao-Dur did.

“I have a headache,” he said.

“That’s normal,” the general replied. She leaned on the central console, watching him eat. Watching him sip his water. Her arms were crossed over her chest and one boot was crossed over another, but overall she seemed more calm than she had since Bao-Dur had gingerly pulled her out of that shuttle. Her gaze was steady. Her irises were a dull red.

“You didn’t take much,” Bao-Dur said.

“Of course not,” the general said. “I need you to fix the ship. You can’t do that if you’re laid up in bed.”

It made sense. “The last vampire who drank from me didn’t have that much control.”

The general’s head tilted. She frowned. “Who?”

Bao-Dur shrugged. “It was the aftermath of a battle. She was injured. I woke up in the infirmary, afterwards.”

The general winced. “You’re lucky you survived.”

Bao-Dur looked down at his arm. “Not all of me did.”

He looked down at his meal instead of watching her make the mental calculations. Last time she’d seen him, he’d had two arms, and there had only been one battle between then and now. He took a bite. Sipped his water.

The general didn’t say anything. Didn’t move.

Bao-Dur said, “You were much gentler, this time.”

Her voice was quiet. Hollow. “Why did you let me drink from you again.”

“I survived then,” Bao-Dur said. “And I survived this time.”

“I… I don’t even remember…”

“You’d been in the sun. And you’d been hurt in the blast.” Burned. Bao-Dur could still remember the smell of burning vampire, burning wood, burning cloth, burning flesh, burning hair.

“ _Why would you ever let me drink from you again_.”

Bao-Dur looked up at her. The general stared back at him, her face flat except for her eyes.

“I already told you,” Bao-Dur said.

The general turned on her heel for the crew’s quarters. Bao-Dur scraped the plate clean.

–

(Not long afterwards, Atton poked his head out of the bridge. “Oh, good. We’re all still alive.”)

(Prick.)


End file.
